The present disclosure relates to an automatic cleaner.
In general, cleaners are home appliances which suction and remove foreign substances from a cleaning surface. Recently, automatic cleaners, that is cleaners for automatically performing a cleaning operation, have begun to be more frequently utilized. The automatic cleaner suctions and removes foreign substances from a floor while being moved by the driving force of a motor powered by a battery.
A moving device is installed on a casing which defines the outer appearance of a general automatic cleaner. The moving device moves the automatic cleaner in a predetermined direction to suction foreign substances from a floor. To this end, a suction port for suctioning the foreign substances from the floor is disposed in a bottom surface of the casing. A main brush which directly contacts the foreign substances to suction the foreign substances through the suction port may be disposed on the suction port.
However, the automatic cleaner suctions only foreign substances in a region corresponding to a lower side of the casing, substantially, a region corresponding to a lower side of the suction port (e.g., under the suction port). Thus, it may be difficult to effectively clean a region outside the footprint of the suction port.
To prevent this difficulty, a side brush is disposed on the bottom surface of the casing. At any one time, at least one portion of the side brush extends outside the footprint of the casing.
The side brush is rotated with respect to the casing to move foreign substances in a region outside the footprint of the casing, specifically, outside the footprint of the suction port toward the suction port.
However, such an automatic cleaner may have following limitations.
As described above, foreign substances located in the region outside the footprint of the suction port are suctioned through the suction port by rotating the side brush. Thus, the more the side brush is increased in length, the more a cleaning area of the automatic cleaner is substantially increased. However, when the side brush is increased in length, the side brush may be damaged while cleaning or being stored. In addition, when the side brush is increased in length, a region occupied by the automatic cleaner may be increased. Thus, it may be inconvenient to store the automatic cleaner.